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Opponent, oddly named Refugees, certainly didn’t look famished or malnourished. They were perhaps a tad too fast and too fit for us to handle. We wilted in the 2nd half whereas they were highly spirited and motivated to come from 0-2 down at the break to equalize in injury time for a draw.
Chwee Leng got his first goal of the season when Refugees' keeper spilled his speculative high lob into the net. While the first goal was courtesy of a huge dosage of luck, our 2nd goal was a textbook routine meeting the corner in the box and Woon did just that with a thumping header to put us 2-0 up at half-time. But 2nd half was a completely different story with their playmaker, No 8, spearheading the attack and he wreaked havoc with his determined run at our rearguards. An assist and a fine goal, and he could have more if Gan had not produced some fine saves to deny him, stamped his class. His equalizing goal deep in injury time was avoidable but it resulted from KH's crucial defensive lapse, allowing the long punt from Refugees' keeper to reach the No 8, who then sidestepped Kok Hock before walloping a low ball from a tight angle to beat Gan at near post.
Experience overcame youth and exuberance once again as Marine Sunday emerged victorious with a convincing 6-2 win over Raven. But the match was not as easy as the score-line suggested. It was 2-2 up to the 60th minute when Raven fought back from 2-0 down to level the score. They were obviously uplifted but a defensive lapse allowed us to claw back a 3-2 lead and from then on, it was a point of no return as we rampaged home further 3 goals to register an easy-looking 6-2 win.
Kama, Chor Guan (2 goals), Kian Hwa, Leo (penalty to open his account for the season) and Teck Chye (after missing 3 golden one-on-one chances) made us look good :)
It was a day where we were no match against the vitality and vibrancy of Orange Young Men, most of whom are still undergraduates in the universities. That means one can guess the age gap. If we had not been a bit robust, read experienced, in our approach, we might have let them overrun us. While we came up short in getting to the ball, we were ample in spirit but that was a tad insufficient for today's narrow 2-3 loss against them.
We conceded the 3 goals through free-kicks and in each occasion, the goal was avoidable if we were defensively alert and disciplined. First goal, why was there a need for Weng Khong and Gan to swap positions in the wall, they themselves knew better, and the goal came via deflection off Gan's head and wrong-footed Brandon along the way. Second goal, the entire defence was expecting a referee whistle and had gone sleeping, and they took the free-kick quickly for their winger to slot the ball past Brandon. Third goal, Brandon was busy organising the defenders and had his eyes off the incoming ball from the free-kick. Three silly goals conceded. In between each of their goals, Mike and Teck Wah made the scoreline respectable.
In the early morning hours, on the large expanse of St Wilfrid's ground, two ageing teams lacking subs competed not on brute strength nor pace, but a measure of footballing intelligence and clinical finishing. A casual observer would have commended both teams for their discipline to keep good shape, and more so to play an arsenaleques style of football, albeit with much less zip. For once, the notion that our matches were supposed to be friendly held true.
In the end, experience was vital. The older team played more compactly as a unit, dominated possession and produced the cutting edge on the two critical moments that determined the outcome of the match. Alex smashed a loose ball low and true, from the edge of the box after good build up play had caused havoc. In the second half, Elder Tang thumped an unstoppable header off younger Tang's corner. In between, KS Whites scored a good goal with a well-worked move. 2-1 to MarineSunday.
It seems like we are gearing ourselves up for the annual lunar 7th Month syndrome where, for whatever reason, our results tend to go haywire during this lunar month :D
Our recent performance, especially against seemingly easy opponents and teams who started the match with 1-man short, has been patchy. Against Team Orange, we were disjointed in the first half - misplaced passes, hasty lay-offs, heavy touches, miscommunication in the backline and to sum up in Chwee Leng's words, we were simply slow to every ball and not robust enough. We presented them with two howlers but fortunately, they failed to capitalize and thankfully, on each occasion, the sleeping Brandon woke up in time to smother their goal-scoring opportunities. We suspect it was his desire for showmanship :) At the other hand, Teck Wah had a close-range effort blocked by the defender on the line and their keeper brilliantly denied KH and Chor Guan on two one-on-one situations. Teck Chye had another clean break-through to face only the keeper but uncharacteristically, the ball did not find the intended net despite wrong-footing the keeper. Match ended in stalemate at the break.
Despite their younger age, Team Orange appeared tired and jaded in the 2nd half. We cranked up our machinery to good effect. Our opening goal came from a textbook-style defence-to-attack-in-1-second. Weng Khong cleared the ball down the right strip to set off Chor Guan a lung-bursting run down the right. After a swift cut-in, he set up KH flying down from the opposite flank for a decisive finish past their rooted keeper, who was perhaps mesmerized by how swiftly we moved the ball from our half to their half. Weng Khong again had a hand, or rather a head, in our 2nd goal goal. His powerful header from our half found Chor Guan in the opposite box (geez...that was quite a header!). CG brushed off their defender's marking like sweeping dandruff off his shoulder before planting a left-footed shot past their keeper. 2-0 and we were cruising. They were struggling and this was further compounded by their lack of reserves. When they saw we made another wave of 4 substitutions on the 75th-minute mark, they must be wondering if we had a life apart from football :)
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